The Man Who Captured 132 Soldiers — And Didn't Want to Fight

He took on a hill of machine guns almost single-handedly — and captured 132 enemy soldiers. And he'd begged not to fight at all.

October 8th, 1918. The Argonne Forest, France. Corporal Alvin York was a deeply religious man from the Tennessee mountains who tried to refuse the war. His draft board denied him conscientious objector status — and the Army sent him anyway.

That morning, York's patrol slipped behind German lines and captured a group of soldiers — then enemy machine guns opened up. In seconds, half his unit was dead or pinned down. York took command and went after the guns himself.

He used a turkey-hunting trick from back home — picking off the rear men first, so the front ones wouldn't notice their line thinning. Firing with deadly precision, he killed around 25 German gunners. Stunned, the German commander offered to surrender his men. York marched 132 prisoners back to American lines.

General Pershing called him the greatest civilian soldier of the war. A man who'd prayed not to fight had pulled off one of the most extraordinary acts of individual combat in history. York went home, turned down a fortune in endorsement deals, and quietly returned to the Tennessee hills.

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